When Jaycee Dugard was just 11, she was abducted on her way to school by convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy. For 18 years, she was held in tents and sheds in the backyard of their California property, where she gave birth to two daughters fathered by Garrido.

Now, seven years after her release, the 36-year-old is rebuilding her life and raising her daughters. One daughter is in college; the other will start soon. And Dugard couldn't be prouder. "I'm so excited for them and so proud of all the challenges they have overcome," she told People.

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In her second memoir, Freedom: My Book of Firsts, Dugar shares more about her girls, whose names have not been released. "My daughters are both so important to me, and I am so proud of who they are growing up to be," Dugard wrote. "I've done my best to protect them over the years, just like any other mother would do for her kids."

Jaycee Dugard in a photo dated about 1990.

Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Dugard is still having to learn everyday tasks like grocery shopping, writing a check, driving a car or making choices for herself, she told ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an interview for 20/20. But she works hard to not give in to regret or anger — and focus on what all that is ahead of her. "I didn't want to give one more minute to Phillip and Nancy … they took 18 years of my life," Dugard said. "It's taken a lot of time and it doesn't come overnight. You have to put in the hard work and cry and for sure laugh about everything you can."

Now, with a soon-to-be-empty nest, Dugard is starting to think more about the possibilities of her own future — including romance. "I have never even been on a date before!" she wrote, adding that she's "not actively seeking love."

But seven years after her horrific ordeal, Dugard says she feels "totally capable of having a relationship one day ... I don't feel so damaged that I am totally put off by the idea," she writes. "I just don't know."

Until then, she's focused on raising her daughters, riding her horses and curling up with a good book: "I see my daughters have relationships and I feel like one day when the time is right I will meet the right person for me."

Watch the rest of her brave, emotional interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer below: